In recent weeks, Spinumviva, the family business of Luís Montenegro, has gained significant public attention. The Prime Minister recently clarified that it was he who named the company, linking its meaning to the fish vendors of Espinho.
“I was the one who thought of it, and I’ve even mentioned this in the Assembly of the Republic. The meaning is quite simple: the name I wanted was ‘é de Espinho viva’, Spinumviva is an adaptation,” Montenegro stated on the podcast ‘Luís, és um bom partido?’, hosted by Guilherme Geirinhas.
He further explained, “‘É de Espinho Viva’ is how the fish vendors of Espinho would sell fish in the streets when the fish were fresh out, with their baskets, calling ‘é de Espinho viva’… it’s a street cry.”
Spinumviva has clarified that companies listed in Luís Montenegro’s income declaration last Tuesday were only “occasional clients” between 2021 and 2023, before the current government’s term began.
The newly revealed clients by Montenegro include Rodáreas, the Instituto Técnico de Alimentação Humana (ITAU), Sogenave, Portugalenses Transportes, Beetsteel, INETUM Portugal, and Grupel SA. Out of these seven companies, five secured contracts with the State.
Notícias ao Minuto | 13:09 – 01/05/2025
In a statement intended to “avoid absurd and unfounded speculations,” signed by Hugo Montenegro, Spinumviva disclosed that in 2021 their clients included Portugalenses and Beetsteel (consulting in strategic and business management) and Inetum (in GDPR adaptation) – “all with reduced service values and respective amounts.”
For 2022, “Itau and Sogenave, with services in the GDPR area, of reduced value” and, in 2022 and 2023, “Grupel, with work started in one year and completed in the next,” also “of reduced value in the GDPR area,” were highlighted.
Regarding Grupo Rodrigues, the statement further informed that it “has already been publicly disclosed by the entity” and that “services were provided in 2021 and 2022.”
Spinumviva emphasized that “the duration of services ranged from six to eighteen months and in none of these cases did the service values exceed a monthly amount of 1,500 euros.”
“None of these companies have been a client of Spinumviva since the mentioned dates,” the firm asserted, reaffirming the already publicized information that “since 2023, clients for ongoing data protection services represent more than 99% of the company’s revenue.”
With this statement, the company, initially founded by Luís Montenegro but later passed to his two sons, aims to avert speculations following the controversy spurred by the amendment to the income declaration submitted to the Transparency Entity last Tuesday. This document allegedly, according to the weekly publication Expresso, indicates the names of seven new companies to whom services were provided.
